If you’re anything like me, there’s a strong chance that you’ve been using apps such as Uber Eats, Grubhub, and others more during the pandemic. In my case, while I was leaning heavily on delivery during the early days, I ended up shifting to pickup options later on while also using these services as a tool for discovering restaurants in my area. Anyway, if you’re a fan of DoorDash and saving money, then I may just have good news for you. This week, Mastercard announced a new partnership and promotion with the service that includes some exclusive benefits for certain cardholders.
First, with this current offer, those holding World and World Elite Mastercards will be able to claim a free three-month trial of DashPass — which is triple the standard one-month trial. With DashPass, you’ll enjoy waived delivery fees on orders over $12 as well as reduced service fees. Plus, if you opt for pickup instead (as you should, but I’ll get to that later), you’ll earn 5% back in the form of a credit. Typically DashPass is $9.99 per month and that’s what you’ll pay should you fail to cancel your subscription before your trial expires. However, the cancelation process is pretty straightforward so this shouldn’t be too much of a hassle. I would just recommend setting a calendar reminder after signing up so you know when you need to make your decision.
While the extended trial is nice, it’s not the best part of this offer. From now through September 30th of 2022 (yes, 2022), eligible Mastercard World and World Elite Mastercard cardholders will receive $5 off of their first two DoorDash orders each month when they pay using their applicable card. Doing some quick math, that’s up to $10 per month for a maximum of 18 months, so this benefit is valued at up to $180 excluding the DashPass trial.
From what I can tell, this $5 credit is quite easy to use. Although I have yet to actually place an order, I did punch up a Chipotle order for pickup just to test out this deal. Before checking out, I noticed that the Promo spot said “Mastercard DashPass $5 Off,” with $5 discount display on my subtotal. Looking on the offer’s FAQ, the only potential catches I see are that 1) at this time, you’ll need to use your eligible Mastercard directly to pay instead of using Apple Pay, Google Pay, or other mobile wallets and 2) if you request a refund for an order on which you used your $5 discount, the $5 discount will not be returned to you.
To activate these perks, visit the DoorDash app and look for the Mastercard banner (you may need to scroll a bit). Then, tap on “Unlock Benefit” and add an eligible card if you haven’t already. From there, you should be able to opt-into the DashPass trial and will begin seeing your $5 discounts applied to orders you place.
Of note, if you happen to have a Mastercard World Debit, unfortunately it doesn’t look like this offer will apply. Personally, I first tried to use my SoFi debit card to unlock the deal but was instead greeted with the typical one-month free DashPass trial. Thankfully, I then remembered that my Capital One SavorOne card was a World Elite Mastercard. Sure enough, after adding the SavorOne, the three-month trial displayed for me along with the other perks.
As I alluded to earlier, even with these discounts, ordering delivery on DoorDash can still be expensive. That’s why I’d personally recommend looking at pickup options in the app instead. While not every restaurant on the service offers pickup, there’s still a pretty impressive selection from my experience (although it will of course depend on your area). I will say that there’s still the chance that a location may retain higher prices for DoorDash orders — even if you’re picking up — than if you ordered directly or in-store, but I think that the $5 discount will more than make up for these discrepancies.
By the way, if you haven’t checked out the other benefits that come with World Elite Mastercard, I’d recommend giving this page a look. In addition to brand-specific offers for the likes of Lyft, HelloFresh, ShopRunner, and others, perks ranging from cell phone protection to exclusive hotel offers and beyond are available. Honestly, while I had previously heard passing mention to these perks before, I had no idea how far they extended. Also, if you’re unsure if your card is a World or World Elite, be sure to check the back for clues.
If you’re keeping score, the addition of this offer means that I now have $25 in monthly UberEats credits from the Amex cards, $10 a month in dining credits that can be used for GrubHub from my Gold card, and now up to $10 a month in DoorDash discounts from Mastercard. That presents a lot of temptation to spend — yet, when used efficiently, I believe I can still come out ahead with these credits. Of course, a big part of that is making use of the pickup option so as to not double my order cost with delivery fees et al. In any case, if you do have a World or World Elite Mastercard and enjoy the occasional DoorDash order, this is certainly a nice and unexpected benefit worth making use of.